A case study of interprofessional collaboration between engineering and health sciences students at Penn State DuBois

The DuBois Campus of the Pennsylvania State University has a long history of providing project-based learning in the courses taken by students enrolled in associate and baccalaureate degree programs. This paper presents a case study of collaborative design projects between first-year engineering (ENG) and second-year Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) students. The projects involved the design and manufacture of assistive devices for elderly and/or disabled persons. Students worked in a team setting consisting of 4 engineering students and 3 OTA students per team and use their understanding of design process (ENG students) and mobility and function (OTA students), paired with a client's occupations, history, and needs to create a piece of adaptive equipment to allow users to engage in desired occupations. To capture students' feedback for quality improvement, questionnaires were designed and completed after the conclusion of the projects and a year or two years later after completing the course. Comparison of students' responses between the two questionnaires suggested that they benefited from the interprofessional collaboration. Unanimously, they all agreed that these collaborative projects helped them to gain insight into how someone from another profession “thinks” and the importance of utilizing everyone's strengths to better accomplish the goals of the team. The collaboration also helped them to be appreciative of the knowledge people bring from other professions that introduces new ideas to the team, respecting others' thoughts and ideas. Some of them continue to collaborate with other professionals.